James Todd Annals/Chapter 1 Genealogies
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- Genealogies of the Rajput princes — The Puranas — Connexion of the Rajputs with the Scythic tribes
The Puranas
[p.23] Being desirous of epitomizing the chronicles of the martial races of Central and Western India, it was essential to ascertain the sources whence they draw, or claim to draw, their lineage. For this purpose I obtained from the library of the Rana of Udaipur their sacred volumes, the Puranas, and laid them before a body of pandits, over whom presided the learned Jati Gyanchandra. From these extracts were made of all the genealogies of the great races of Surya and Chandra, and of facts historical and geographical.
Most of the Puranas 1 contain portions of historical as well as geographical knowledge ; but the
- Bhagavata Purana, the
- Skand Purana, the
- Agni Purana, and the
- Bhavishya Purana
are the chief guides. It is rather fortunate than to be regretted that their chronologies do not perfectly agree. The number of princes in each line varies, and names are transposed ; but we recognize distinctly the principal features in each, affording the conclusion that they are the productions of various writers, borrowing from some common original source [21].
1 " Every Purana," says the first authority existing in Sanskrit lore, " treats of five subjects : the creation of the universe ; its progress, and the renovation of the world ; the genealogy of gods and heroes ; chronology, according to a fabulous system ; and heroic history, containing the achievements of demi-gods and heroes. Since each purana contains a cosmogony, both mythological and heroic history, the works which bear that title may not unaptly be compared to the Grecian theogonies " ('Essay on the Sanskrit and Pracrit Languages,' by H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. ; As. Res. vol. vii. p. 202). [On the age of the Puranas see Smith, EHI, 21 if.]
Deluge Legend
[p.24]: The Genesis 1 of India commences with an event described in the history of almost all nations, the deluge, which, though treated with the fancy peculiar to the orientals, is not the less entitled to attention. The essence of the extract from the Agni Purana is this : " When ocean quitted his bounds and caused universal destruction by Brahma's command, Vaivaswata 2 Manu (Noah), who dwelt near the Himalaya 3 mountains was giving water to the gods in the Kritamala river, when a small fish fell into his hand. A voice commanded him to preserve it. The fish expanded to an enormous size. Manu, with his sons and their wives, and the sages, with the seed of every living thing, entered into a vessel which was fastened to a horn on the head of the fish, and thus they were preserved."
Here, then, the grand northern chain is given to which the abode of the great patriarch of mankind approximated. In the Bhavishya it is stated, that " Vaivaswata (sun-born) Manu ruled at the mountain Sumeru. Of his seed was Kakutstha Raja, who obtained sovereignty at Ayodhya, 4 and his descendants filled the land and spread over the earth."
I am aware of the meaning given to Sumeru, that thus the Hindus designated the north pole of the earth. But they had also a mountain with this same appellation of pre-eminence of Meru, 'the hill,' with the prefix Su, 'good, sacred' : the Sacred Hill.
Meru, Sumeru
In the geography of the Agni Purana, the term is used as a substantial geographical limit ; 5 and some of
1 Resolvable into Sanskrit, janarn, ' birth,' and is and iswar, ' lords ' [greek], Skr. root jan, ' to generate '].
2 Son of the sun.
3 The snowy Caucasus. Sir William Jones, in an extract from a work entitled Essence of the Pooranas, says that this event took place at Dravira in the Deccan.
4 The present Ajodhya, capital of one of the twenty-two satrapies constituting the Mogul Empire, and for some generations held by the titular Vizir, who has recently assumed the regal title. [Ghaziu-d-din Haidar in 1819.]
5 " To the south of Sumeru are the mountains Himavan, Hemakuta, and Nishadha ; to the north are the countries Nil, Sveta, and Sringi. Between Hemachal and the ocean the land is Bharatkhand, called Kukarma Bhumi (land of vice, opposed to Aryavarta, or land of virtue), in which the seven grand ranges are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Suktimat, Riksha, Vindhya, and Paripatra " (Agni Purana).
[p. 25]:
the rivers flowing from the mountainous ranges, whose relative position with Sumeru are there defined, still retain their ancient appellations. Let us not darken the subject, by supposing only allegorical meanings attached to explicit points. In the distribution of their seven dwipas, or continents, though they interpose seas of curds, milk, or wine, we should not reject strong and evident facts, because subsequent ignorant interpolators filled up the page with puerilities [22].
This sacred mountain (Sumeru) is claimed by the Brahmans as the abode of Mahadeva, 1 Adiswar, 2 or Baghes 3 ; by the Jains, as the abode of Adinath, 4 the first Jiniswara, or Jain lord. Here they say he taught mankind the arts of agriculture and civilized life. The Greeks claimed it as the abode of Bacchus ; and hence the Grecian fable of this god being taken from the thigh of Jupiter, confounding rneros (thigh) with the meru (hill) of this Indian deity. In this vicinity the followers of Alexander had their Saturnalia, drank to excess of the wine from its indigenous vines, and bound their brows with ivy (vela) 5 sacred to the Baghes of the east and west, whose votaries alike indulge in ' strong drink.'
These traditions appear to point to one spot, and to one individual, in the early history of mankind, when the Hindu and the Greek approach a common focus ; for there is little doubt that Adinath, Adiswara, Osiris, Baghes, Bacchus, Manu, Menes designate the patriarch of mankind, Noah.
The Hindus can at this time give only a very general idea of the site of Meru ; but they appear to localize it in a space of which Bamian, Kabul, and Ghazni would be the exterior points. The former of these cities is Known to possess remains of the
1 The Creator, literally ' the Great God.
2 The ' first lord.'
3 Baghes, ' the tiger lord. He wears a tiger's or panther's hide ; which he places beneath him. So Bacchus did. The phallus is the emblem of each. Baghes has several temples in Mewar. [In identifying Bacchus with a Hindu tiger god the author depended on Asiatic Researches, i. 258, viii. 51. For the Greek story in the text see Quintus Curtius viii. 10; Diodorus iii. 63; Arrian, Anabasis, vii.]
4 First lord.
5 Vela is the general term for a climber, sacred to the Indian Bacchus (Baghes, Adiswara, or Mahadeva), whose priests, following his example, are fond of intoxicating beverages, or drugs. The amarbel, or immortal vela, is a noble climber.
[p.26]: religion of Buddha, in its caves and colossal statues. 1 The Paropamisaa Alexandria is near Bamian ; but the Meru and Nyssa 2 of Alexander are placed more to the eastward by the Greek writers, and according to the cautious Arrian between the Cophas and Indus. Authority localizes it between Peshawar and Jalalabad, and calls it Merkoh, or Markoh, 3 " a bare rock 2000 feet high [23] with caves to the westward, termed Bedaulat by the Emperor Humayun from its dismal appearance." 4 This
1 [" In the Tuman of Zohak and Bamian, the fortress of Zohak is a monument of great antiquity, and in good preservation, but the fort of Bamian is in ruins. In the mountain -side caves have been excavated and ornamented with plaster and paintings. Of these there are 12,000 which are called Sumaj, and in former times were used by the people as winter retreats. Three colossal figures are here : one is the statue of a man, 80 yards in height ; another that of a woman, 50 yards high, and the third that of a child measuring 15 yards. Strange to relate, in one of the caves is placed a coffin containing the body of one who reposes in his last sleep. The oldest and most learned of antiquarians can give no account of its origin, but suppose it to be of great antiquity. In days of old the ancients prepared a medicament with which they anointed corpses and consigned them to earth in a hard soil. The simple, deceived by this art, attribute their preservation to a miracle " (Ain, ii. 409 f., with Jarrett's notes). For Bamian see EB, iii. 304 f.]
2 Nishadha is mentioned in the Purana as a mountain. If in the genitive case (which the final syllable marks), it would be a local term given from the city of Nissa. [Nysa has no connexion with Nishadha. It probably lay near Jalalabad or Koh-i Mor (Smith EHI, 53).]
3 Meru, Sanskrit, and Koh, Persian, for a ' hill.'
4 Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 497. Wilford appears to have borrowed largely from that ancient store-house (as the Hindu would call it) of learning. Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World. He combines, however, much of what that great man had so singularly acquired and condensed, with what he himself collected, and with the aid of imagination has formed a curious mosaic. But when he took a peep into " the chorographical description of the Terrestrial Paradise," I am surprised he did not separate the nurseries of mankind before and after the flood. There is one passage, also, of Sir Walter Raleigh which would have aided his hypothesis, that Eden was in Higher Asia, between the common sources of the Jihun and other grand rivers : the abundance of the Ficus Indica, or bar-tree, sacred to the first lord, Adnath or Mahadeva.
" Now for the tree of knowledge of good and evil, some men have presumed further ; especially Gorapius Bocanus, who giveth himself the honour to have found out the kind of this tree, which none of the writers of former times could ever guess at, whereat Gorapius much marvelleth."
" Both together went Into the thickest wood ; there soon they chose
[p. 27]:
designation, however, of Dasht-i Bedaulat, or ' unhappy plain,' was given to the tract between the cities before mentioned [24]. The only scope of these remarks on Sumeru is to show that
- The fig tree ; not that kind for fruit renowned.
- But such as at this day, to Indians known
- In Malabar or Decan, spreads her arms
- Branching so broad and long, that in the ground
- The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow
- About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade
- High overarched, and echoing walks between.
- There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,
- Shelters in cool and tends his pasturing herds."
- ...." Those leaves
- They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe."
- Paradise Lost, Book ix. 1100 ff.
Sir Walter strongly supports the Hindu hypothesis regarding the locality of the nursery for rearing mankind, and that " India was the first planted and peopled countrie after the flood " (p. 99). His first argument is, that it was a place where the vine and olive were indigenous, as amongst the Sakai Scythai (and as they still are, together with oats, between Kabul and Bamian) ; and that Ararat could not be in Armenia, because the Gordian mountains on which the ark rested were in longitude 75°, and the Valley of Shinar 79° to 80°, which would be reversing the tide of migration. "As they journeyed from the East, they found a plain, in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there " (Genesis, chap. xi. ver. 2). He adds, " Ararat, named by Moses, is not any one hill, but a general term for the great Caucasian range ; therefore we must blow up this mountain Ararat, or dig it down and carry it out of Armenia, or find it elsewhere in a warmer country, and east from Shinar." He therefore places it in Indo-Scythia, in 140° of longitude and 35° to 37° of latitude, " where the mountains do build them- selves exceeding high " : and concludes, " It was in the plentiful warm East where Noah rested, where he planted the vine, where he tilled the ground and lived thereon. Placuit vero Noacho agriculturae studium in qua trac- tanda ipse omnium peritissimus esse dicitur ; ob eamque rem, sua ipsius lingua, Ish-Adamath : * hoc est, Telluris Vir, appellatur, celebratusque est.
The study of husbandry pleased Noah (says the excellent learned man, Arius Montanus) in the order and knowledge of which it is said that Noah excelled all men, and therefore was he called in his own language, a man exercised in the earth." The title, character, and abode exactly suit the description
* In Sanskrit, Ish, ' Lord,' adi, ' the first,' matti, ' Earth.' [The derivation is absurd : matti, ' clay,' is modern Hindi.] Here the Sanskrit and Hebrew have the same meaning, ' first lord of the earth.' In these remote Rajput regions, where early manners and language remain, the strongest phrase to denote a man or human being is literally ' earth.' A chief describing a fray between his own followers and borderers whence death ensued, says, Meri matti mari, ' My earth has been struck ' : a phrase requiring no comment, and denoting that he must have blood in return.
[p.28 the Hindus themselves do not make India within the Indus the cradle of their race, but west, amidst the hills of Caucasus, 1 whence the sons of Vaivaswata, or the ' sun-born,' migrated eastward to the Indus and Ganges, and founded their first establishment in Kosala, the capital, Ayodhya, or Oudh.
Most nations have indulged the desire of fixing the source whence they issued, and few spots possess more interest than this elevated Madhya-Bhumi, or ' central region ' of Asia, where the Amu, Oxus, or Jihun, and other rivers, have their rise, and in which both the Surya and Indu 2 races (Sakha) claim the hill, 3
the Jains give of their first Jiniswara, Adinath, the first lordly man, who taught them agriculture, even to " muzzling the bull in treading out the corn."
Had Sir Walter been aware that the Hindu sacred books styled their country Aryavarta,* and of which the great Imaus is the northern boundary, he would doubtless have seized it for his Ararat. [Needless to say, these speculations are obsolete.]
1 Hindu, or Indu-kush or koh, is the local appellation ; ' mountain of the moon.' [Hindu-kush is said to mean ' Hindu-slayer ' or ' Indian Caucasus.']
2 Solar and lunar.
3 Meru, ' the hill,' is used distinctively, as in Jaisalmer (the capital of the Bhatti tribe in the Western Desert), ' the hill of Jaisal ' ; Merwara, or the ' mountainous region ' ; and its inhabitants Meras, or ' mountaineers.' Thus, also, in the grand epic the Ramayana (Book i. p. 236), Mena is the mountain-nymph, the daughter of Meru and spouse of Himavat ; from whom sprung two daughters, the river goddess Ganga and the mountain- nymph Parbati. She is, in the Mahabharata, also termed Saila, the daughter of Sail, another designation of the snowy chain ; and hence mountain streams are called in Sanskrit silletee [?]. Saila bears the same attributes with the Phrygian Cybele, who was also the daughter of a mountain of the same name ; the one is carried, the other drawn, by lions. Thus the Greeks also metamorphosed Parbat Pamer, or ' the mountain Pamer,' into Paropamisan, applied to the Hindu Koh west of Bamian : but the Parbat pat Pamer, or ' Pamer chief of hills,' is mentioned by the bard Chand as being far cast of that tract, and under it resided Hamira, one of the great feudatories of Prithwiraja of Delhi. Had it been Paropanisan (as some authorities write it), it would better accord with the locality where it takes up the name, being near to Nyssa and Meru, of which Parbat or Pahar would be a version, and form Paronisan, ' the Mountain of Nyssa,' the range Nishadha of the Puranas. [The true form is Paropanisos : the suggested derivation is impossible.]
* Aryavarta, or the land of promise or virtue, cannot extend to the flat plains of India south of the Himavat ; for this is styled in the Puranas the very reverse, kukarma des, or land of vice. [Aryavarta is the land bounded by the Himalaya and Vindhya, from the eastern to the western seas (Manu, Laws, ii. 22).]
[p. 29]:
sacred to a great patriarchal ancestor, whence they migrated eastward.
Connexion with the Scythic habits
The Rajput tribes could scarcely have acquired some of their still existing Scythic habits and warlike superstitions on the burning plains of Ind. It was too hot to hail with fervent adoration the return of the sun from his southern course to enliven the northern hemisphere. This should be the religion of a colder clime, brought from their first haunts, the sources of the Jihun and Jaxartes. The grand solstitial festival, the Aswamedha, or sacrifice of the horse (the type of the sun), practised by the children of Vaivaswata, the ' sun-born,' was most probably simultaneously introduced from Scythia into the plains of Ind, and west, by the sons of Odin, Woden, or Budha, into Scandinavia, where it became the Hi-el or Hi-ul, 1 the festival of the winter solstice ; the grand jubilee of northern nations, and in the first ages of Christianity, being so near the epoch of its rise, gladly used by the first fathers of the church to perpetuate that event. 2
1. Haya or Hi, in Sanskrit, ' horse ' — El, ' sun ' : whence [greek] and [greek]. [greek] appears to have been a term of Scythian origin for the sun ; and Hari, the Indian Apollo, is addressed as the sun. Hiul, or Jul, of northern nations (qu. Noel of France ?), is the Hindu Sankranti, of which more will be said hereafter. [The feast was known as Hvil, .Tnl, or Yule, and the suggested derivation is impossible.]
2. Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
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